Aristophanes, << `ar` ih STOF uh `neez` >> (445?-385? B.C.), was the greatest ancient Greek writer of comedy. His plays combine fantasy, rollicking wit, and graceful lyrics with serious criticism of politics, manners, education, music, and literature. He was a master of song and rhythm, and he had a rich imagination.
His comedies provide our best picture of Athenian life at its most interesting period. They also provide some of the earliest and best examples of political and social satire. Aristophanes began to produce comedies before he was 20. He wrote more than 40 plays, and 11 have survived. They are Acharnians (425 B.C.), Knights (424), Clouds (423), Wasps (422), Peace (421), Birds (414), Lysistrata (411), Thesmophoriazusae (411), Frogs (405), Ecclesiazusae (393 or 392?), and Plutus (388).
Aristophanes’ most popular plays are Frogs, which criticized Euripides; Clouds, which satirized Socrates; Birds, a fantasy about a city in the sky; and Lysistrata, a partly farcical play in which the women of Greece force their husbands to stop warring against each other.
